{"doi":"10.1002/smtd.202401988","title":"Volumetric, Microfluidic Plasmonic RT‐PCR","abstract":"Decentralized molecular detection of pathogens remains an important goal for public health. Although polymerase chain reaction (PCR) remains the gold-standard molecular detection method, thermocycling using Peltier heaters presents challenges in decentralized settings. Recent work has demonstrated plasmonic PCR, where nanomaterials on a surface or nanoparticles in solution heat upon stimulation by light, as a promising method for rapid thermocycling. Heating of a solution via nanoparticles suspended in solution has been demonstrated in PCR tubes, but not on microfluidic chips. We developed a volumetric, microfluidic plasmonic reverse transcription (RT)-PCR method. A microfluidic chip is fabricated with an integrated thermocouple to measure internal temperature, feeding into a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) algorithm that modulates an infrared LED for closed-loop control. Gold nanorods are dispersed in solution with RT-PCR reagents. We created an instrument for plasmonic RT-PCR using an infrared LED for heating, fan for cooling, and fluorometer for end-point fluorescence detection. Rapid thermocycling and amplification of SARS-CoV-2 within 16 min (5 min for RT, 45 cycles in 11 min) is achieved. This paper demonstrates volumetric, plasmonic PCR in a microfluidic chip, using an integrated thermocouple for closed-loop control. This work points to the promise of using microfluidics and nanomaterials to achieve rapid, compact detection of pathogens in decentralized settings.","journal":"Small Methods","year":2025,"id":519212,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":6,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9589,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":282652,"name":"Kelia Human","orcid":"0000-0002-3709-5037","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1388127,"name":"Robert Stanciu","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1387537,"name":"A. Q. Liu","orcid":"0000-0002-0126-5778","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1388128,"name":"Jack Doucette","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1388129,"name":"Ayi Agboglo","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1387538,"name":"Yifan Qin","orcid":"0000-0002-0092-7872","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":848231,"name":"Terry L. Chern","orcid":"0000-0003-3497-5220","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":848908,"name":"Vira Behnam","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":848905,"name":"Nicole R. Blumenfeld","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":922342,"name":"Christia M. Victoriano","orcid":null,"position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":848227,"name":"Abigail G. Ayers","orcid":"0000-0001-7145-303X","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":281545,"name":"Medini K. Annavajhala","orcid":"0000-0002-9229-8849","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":876029,"name":"Stefano Begolo","orcid":"0000-0002-1361-8200","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":246804,"name":"Anne‐Catrin Uhlemann","orcid":"0000-0002-9798-4768","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":363669,"name":"Samuel K. Sia","orcid":"0000-0003-0230-3542","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1387536,"name":"Harshit Harpaldas Chellani","orcid":"0000-0002-9737-3932","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":39,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:49:18.751199Z","pmid":"40072286","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}